Figuring Out FairyTail
by Chesscakecheese
Summary: Focused on the developing of relationships between characters, starting with GaLe and hopefully adding more as the story develops. Characters (so far) include Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, Panther lily, Levy, Mira-jane and Elfman; more to follow shortly, both in mentioning and detail.
1. Chapter 1 - It Begins

**A/N - Finally figured out how people were writing these so now I can say what I want about this - if you see any mistakes don't worry about offending; any criticism or compliments are appreciated equally (well, compliments are slightly higher in terms of my ranking but...) so feel free to drop a quick review!**

**Hope you enjoy! :)**

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><p><span>Chapter 1 - It Begins<span>

_The sun is descending over the Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia, where the guild 'Fairy Tail' are relaxing and laughing with each other. Although the feeling of happiness is almost overwhelming in the guild, there is one corner of the guild which hasn't quite registered the mood..._

Gajeel sat in the corner of Fairy Tail's guild, staring broodingly at the request board, eyebrows furrowed. For once, the iron dragonslayer didn't quite feel like himself. Ever since the return from Tenrou Island he had found himself thinking about the events of that day, and what everyone had been through… it was almost as if he was worried for them; as if he might almost care.

Gajeel shook his head and turned his gaze to where the members of Shadow Gear were chatting to a few members of Fairy Tail's "strongest team"; Gajeel chuckled darkly to himself at the thought of it. Sure, Erza was tough and all but Natsu let his emotions distract him, Gray had an issue with clothes which meant Gajeel could not take him seriously as a competitor for any position of power and Lucy was nothing without her keys. He could defeat most of them one on one, and definitely give Erza a run for her money but… the way the stuck together… Gajeel briefly allowed himself to appreciate the strong bonds of power and friendship between them before laughing to himself. Like he needed people looking after him. As if any of the people here would want him looking after them, especially after what he did to their guild and their nakama.

As he thought this, he couldn't help focussing his attention of the leader of Shadow Gear, who was currently laughing at a comment Lucy had made, seemingly at Gray's expense, who looked irritated. Levy had been his partner on Tenrou Island and whilst everything was going back to normal for everyone else, he couldn't say the same about her. She was a mixture of work and relaxation, seemingly finding time for everyone and herself – something Gajeel secretly admired her for. Realising he had, once again, ended up thinking of Levy, Gajeel leaned back further into his chair and closer into the comfort of the shadows. Closing his eyes, he unwillingly found that despite the laughter and chatter from various other members of Fairy Tail, his ability to hear as a dragonslayer meant he could hear what Lucy and Levy were talking about.

"… so you're saying it wouldn't work?" Lucy tried to stifle a laugh as Gray sighed.

"I am saying that even if you challenged me, even just for a day, it's not a conscious decision." Gray answered dismissively as Lucy giggled and Levy smiled teasingly.

"What is Levy wrote out…?" Lucy started but Levy interrupted her.

"I am not going to try to do any research into how Gray is to keep his clothes on, that's his personal problem to deal with; I refuse to write "fabric" every time you strip!" Levy addressed the last part to Gray and uncontrollably joined in with Lucy's laughter as Grey folded his arms against his chest and attempted to sulk.

"Speaking of personal problems, Levy, how is yours going?" Gray asked quietly, causing Lucy and Levy to stop giggling. Levy straightened up slightly, which had no effect on her height, but it was clear she wasn't in a laughing mood anymore.

"I don't have any, Gray." Levy said cautiously as Lucy smirked and Gray looked at her disbelievingly.

"Come on, everyone knows something went on at…"

"Nothing happened. Gajeel saved me because I was too weak to help myself and those around me. I'd rather just forget it all happened…" Levy trailed off sadly and mumbling an excuse, headed towards the bar, leaving Lucy looking reproachfully at Gray as he raised his hands up in defence at her glare.

Gajeel opened his eyes and watched as Levy walked to the bar and started being comforted by Mirajane.

Without realising it, Gajeel clenched his fists as his thoughts turned bitter as he watched Levy smile sadly. He had told her to stay close to him on Tenrou Island but then had made up all sorts of nicknames so he could avoid saying her name or being associated with her… Gajeel glanced away as Levy motioned towards him, not wanting to seem as if he had been looking at her. He half expected Levy to understand why he was keeping his distance from her whilst telling her to stay beside him; but even the cleverest member of the guild had no hope of understanding his cold, dark heart when even he didn't know what it was saying… or if it existed.

"Gajeel" A low voice spoke next to him as Gajeel turned and saw Panther lily looking at him with a smirk on his face.

"Lily" Gajeel replied as a way of greeting, giving Levy a last quick glance before focussing his attention on Lily. Lily's smirk widened as he noticed this.

"I've just been with Carla and Happy – I thought I'd give you a heads up to what they were saying…" Lily paused as Gajeel looked other his head where Carla was looking concerned at Nastu and Gray, whom Gray was whispering something to, and Happy, who had stuffed a fish in his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Gajeel looked back at Lily as he continued mysteriously whilst trying not to laugh "…things are about to get a bit heated for…"

Lily was cut off by the sound of Natsu roaring and Gajeel spun around to see him glaring at Gray with flames in his hand. As a response Grey smirked and started preparing his ice magic. The two collided with each other, flame melting ice but ice being re-created quickly enough to keep up, the two mages refusing to back down as they pushed and hit at each other. Gajeel couldn't help laughing at the look on Natsu's face, which was pure anger, and at Gray, who had managed to bump into Lucy and caused her to spill her drink on herself.

"Stop it you two!" Lucy and Erza shouted simultaneously , which usually would have resulted in a pause from the fight and enough time for Erza to step in. Instead, the fighting escalated, Gray managing to lose some of his clothes in the process. As they battle started to head towards where Gajeel was sitting, Gajeel started flexing his muscles and prepared to jump into the fight, grinning wickedly.

He was stopped by Pantherlily though, who muttered quietly "Trust me, you don't want to know what they were arguing about" and motioned for Gajeel to follow him towards the bar for a drink. Gajeel paused for a moment before sulkily following and seating himself two seats away from Levy, who was staring into the contents of her drink with a worry line across her forehead. Gajeel took a sharp intake of breath which he hastily turned into a cough as she tucked a lose part of hair around her ear and looked up to see Gajeel, giving him a small smile. Gajeel turned his back to Levy, holding in the urge to talk to her, and motioned for Mirajane to head over. Levy had gone back to looking sadly at the contents of her drink and Gajeel found himself copying this action once Mirajane had brought his.

"THAT'S IT YOU ICE FREAK!" A voice suddenly shattered through Gajeel's thoughts as he whirled around and noticed three things; one was that Gray was now fighting Natsu in the nude. Another was that practically the whole guild had now got involved, although Lucy and Erza were ignoring it and trying to eat cake at the side of the ongoing battle. Most importantly, however, was that Nastu had just shot a fireball at Gray and he had managed to dodge it, and it was now directly on course for Levy.

Without thinking Gajeel threw himself at Levy, knocking her off her chair and blocking the fireball with his back as he fell on top of her. As Gajeel looked at Levy beneath him he noticed she was looking at him strangely. He could hear her heartbeat quicken as he asked "Are you okay?" in a whisper, barely managing to get the words out any stronger under the gaze she was holding on him. Levy nodded and Gajeel couldn't resist leaning in and briefly pressing his forehead to hers, muttering "Good" before he realised he had been on top of her for far too long than necessary. Hastily he rolled off her and ran into the battle, seeking Natsu and Gray. Without a word he picked them up and dragged them outside of the guild, noting how the guild stopped fighting as he did so and Natsu and Grey struggled against his iron grip.

Pantherlily watched as Gajeel exited and cast a sneaky glance at Levy, who was still on the floor, and was confusingly pressing her hand to her forehead. However, Pantherlily noted, she did have a puzzled smile on her face. Lily laughed to himself and muttered quietly after his friend and finished his original sentence: "things are going to get a little heated for _you_, my friend" as Happy finally finished his fish and raced off, laughing, to find out what had become of Natsu.

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><p><strong>What do we all think? Good attempt at a first chapter? Let me know if you want to see any particular developments occur as the story progresses!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2 - Personal Problems

**A/N - Bringing some more characters and name drops into the picture; enjoy!**

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><p><span>Chapter 2 – Personal Problems<span>

As soon as they had exited the guild Gajeel released Gray and Natsu, scowling at the pair of them. "How about you two knock it off for a day?" He suggested darkly as he glared at Natsu in particular, unable to keep his fists from curling as he remembered how close Natsu's fireball had been to Levy.

"Oh yeah? You looking to join in the fight too?!" Natsu yelled angrily, drawing up flames once more in his hands.

"Calm down Natsu that's not what he meant…" Gray interjected quickly as Natsu struggled to calm down.

Gajeel sneered at Natsu and headed away from the guild, calling back "It's none of my business what you do…" Glancing back, he continued "just don't be stupid about it" before sticking his hands in his pockets and turning into an alleyway and out of sight.

Natsu, panting heavily, folded his arms across his chest in a sulking manner. "Well you're not going to see me listening to you any time soon!" he yelled pointlessly after him. Gray chuckled, noting that despite what Natsu had said, he had in fact listened to his fellow dragonslayer and was calming down.

"Hey Natsu; ignore what I said. I was just winding you up…" Gray muttered to himself, knowing that Natsu would be able to hear him anyway, even if it wasn't a direct apology. Natsu stiffened but apart from that, made no reaction to what he had said. Gray sighed and walked back into the guild, entering just as Happy flew out. Spotting Natsu, Happy swooped down next to him, poking him on his shoulder.

"Natsu are you okay?" Happy asked, concern momentarily showing in his voice.

Natsu placed his hands in his hair and closed his eyes. "Happy…" he asked quietly "…what do you think of Luce?"

"Lucy?" Happy raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh…" Natsu confirmed.

"Why?" Happy asked innocently, hiding the evil grin that was attempting to reveal itself.

"I don't know, Gray said something about her that got me thinking" Natsu motioned over his shoulder towards the guild "but I'd trust your opinion before his" he added moodily, looking at Happy.

"Well she lets us stay at her place. And she gives me fish! But sometimes she is mean when she doesn't give me fish…" Happy said sadly, thinking of the fish which Lucy had refused to let him eat raw and had cooked with potatoes instead for dinner once.

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, I suppose she is a bit mean sometimes" he said happily, all previous worries disappearing from his mind. "Come on Happy, let's go fishing and then you can eat them how you want!" Natsu ran off, Happy following with a cry of something along the lines of 'fish' and 'aye'.

Gray, who had been watching by the door, smiled to himself. He hadn't heard the conversation but he got the gist. That guy was an idiot. He smiled to himself as he made his way over to Erza and Lucy, who had finished their cakes and were talking about different battle techniques. Well, Erza was talking.

"You need to work on your defence as well as your magic training Lucy" Erza was lecturing Lucy as she desperately tried to motion Mirajane over with another cake to distract Erza, with no luck.

Upon seeing Gray however, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and quickly spoke loudly "Ah Gray! If you're here then that means Natsu must have finished fighting – I'm going to go home and check he's not burning the place down!" With a quick wave and a shout of farewell, Lucy raced out of the guild, leaving Gray to a slightly irritated Erza.

"Gray-sama?" Juvia suddenly appeared behind one of the pillars behind Erza, causing Gray to jump. "You've lost your clothes again; although Juvia thinks you look better without them" Juvia blushed as Gray looked down in disbelief and found himself with less clothes on then a moment before.

"Great. I've lost a shoe…" he said, avoiding both Erza's slight sigh and Juvia's stare as he located his shirt, glancing around the guild.

"Juvia shall find it if her love wants it!" Juvia cried and started crawling under the various tables people were seated on, causing a great deal of commotion.

"Gray you should really talk to her…" Erza began to lecture as Gray pulled his shirt over his head.

"You try talking to her, she won't listen. Besides, it's not your problem." Gray snapped back at Erza, unable to take his eyes off Juvia scuttling around at an alarming speed and asking for her 'love's shoe'.

"Oh so it's your personal problem then?" Erza laughed as Gray suddenly realised she had been listening to him, Lucy and Levy from before. "Maybe we should leave 'personal' problems to each person they belong to then hm? Including Natsu…" Erza added as Gray snapped his head up, knowing she was referring to what he had whispered to Natsu before.

"Yeah, well, I said I was sorry. Can't blame me if he doesn't get the message."

"Can you blame Juvia if she thinks she has one?" Erza asked quietly as Gray mentioned going to bed early and jogged out of the guild, forgetting why he was there in the first place.

Erza leaned back and allowed herself to relax. With Natsu, Gajeel and Gray gone along with Elfman and some of the other louder members of Fairy Tail on various jobs, it was almost peaceful. Mirajane wordlessly brought over a strawberry cake to Erza, who smiled and motioned a 'thanks' with a nod of her head.

"JUVIA HAS FOUND GRAY-SAMA'S SHOE!" Juvia sang happily as she bounced over to Erza, looking around her as she held the shoe in her hands tightly. Erza made a mental note to herself that although Juvia was shy sometimes, she was also quite noisy about Gray, with or without him.

"He has already gone Juvia…" Erza watched as Juvia's face suddenly changed into a heartbroken expression. Juvia looked at the shoe sadly, turning it over in her hands and noting every detail.

"Gray-sama left Juvia without saying goodbye... But he left her his shoe!" Suddenly Juvia was skipping merrily around Erza as Erza was shaking her head smiling. "Now Juvia has a reason to visit Gray-sama!" Juvia exclaimed excitedly, conjuring a number of thoughts at a rapid speed about how Gray-sama had intentionally left his shoe with Juvia just so she could come and see him. Juvia started to exit the guild but Erza caught her arm.

"Maybe tomorrow Juvia – Gray is bound to be tired after the scuffle with Natsu" Erza said, assuming that Gray would not be in a mood to talk to anyone that evening. As Juvia's face fell, Erza had an idea.

"Juvia, I think I can help you with Gray" Erza said thoughtfully, polishing off the last of her cake.

"Juvia is confused. Juvia doesn't need help loving Gray-sama." Juvia hugged the shoe close to her and sighed contently. "Juvia already loves Gray-sama to the full!" Without a backwards glance, Juvia cradled the shoe in her arms and marched out into the evening, leaving Erza alone in the sudden silence.

Erza quickly glanced over at Levy, who had taken out a book to read and was still on the first page around since Gajeel had left and made her way over to her, guiltily thinking 'I'm glad Lucy is dealing with Natsu tonight' as she sat down next to Levy and ordered her third strawberry cake of the evening.

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><p><strong>'Personal problems'? Natsu, Gray and Levy? Let me know how you want this to develop :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3 - Fire and Fish

**A/N - For the NaLu fansl enjoy!**

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><p><span>Chapter 3 – Fire and Fish<span>

Lucy burst into her apartment, slightly out of breath, and hastily looked around her apartment. Once she had determined nothing was on fire, she breathed out a sigh of relief. It was a constant paranoia that whenever she approached her home by the river she thought she could smell burning. She recently had taken to filling up a bucket of water by her bed… just as a precaution.

Lucy walked over to her bed and collapsed on top of it, passing a weary hand over her eyes. With all the requests and jobs and running around all the time she barely had any time to relax properly on her own. Lucy smiled to herself as she thought of nice evening where she might actually be able to have a bath without something terrible occurring. After another minutes thought, Lucy decided that was exactly what she was going to do and headed to the bathroom, taking in her nightie to wear whilst waiting for the bath to fill.

As she hummed happily as her bathroom started to steam from the heat, she realised she had left her window open. Not that she wouldn't _mind_ Natsu walking around in her apartment but she did not want a naked encounter… at least not yet. Blushing furiously, she marched out in her nightie to the window and slammed it shut, muttering a contented 'ha' under her breath. Spinning around she marched back into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, stripped and turned off the tap and climbed in, sighing as the hot water met her aching bones.

In the kitchen, Natsu and Happy wearily poked their heads out from the kitchen where they'd been hiding.

"Natsu, she looks kinda angry…" Happy said worriedly as he glanced behind him at the fridge where several raw fish were concealed.

"Yeah; she does looks a bit troubled" Natsu agreed, scratching his head thoughtfully. He didn't want Lucy to be in a bad mood, especially when she was already going to be mad at them for storing their fish in her apartment again. His ears still throbbed at the memory of her shouting at them when she had come home to discover the smell of fish flooding her apartment. Despite all the windows open the smell had taken a good few days to completely disappear.

"Do you think she'll be in a mean mood?" Happy said worryingly as he eyed the door to the bathroom carefully.

"Don't worry Happy I'll cover for you – I'll explain about the fish, you can go back to the guild… see if Carla is still there" Natsu suggested cheerfully, noting how much Happy's eyes lit up at the thought of seeing Carla again.

"Aye!" Happy chirped as Natsu opened the window and he flew out, leaving Natsu alone. Natsu carefully shut the window and made his way back into the kitchen, trying to keep quiet. Wondering what to do, his eyes fell on the fridge as an idea struck him. Clapping his hands together excitedly Natsu found Lucy's apron for cooking and tied it around his waist.

Meanwhile, Lucy was just finishing off her bath, the bubbles having almost disappeared due to the amount of time she had been in. She smiled contentedly to herself and closed her eyes, dunking her head under the water. She forced herself up however, slightly coughing, when she heard her fire alarm go off.

Alarmed, Lucy grabbed her nightie and quickly tied it around herself, unlocking the door and running out of the bathroom. A thin layer of smoke greeted her and she started to cough.

"It's okay Lucy I've got it under control!" yelled Natsu as he emerged from the kitchen with a charcoaled fish in his hand whilst looking very pleased with himself.

"OPEN THE WINDOW YOU IDIOT!" Lucy screamed as she made her way to her bed, where she pulled out her bucket of water, throwing out the fish that was inside it. Running to her oven, she threw the water over the source of the flames as they were extinguished, and leant back on the kitchen surface opposite and tried to breathe normally. This led to another coughing fit, causing Natsu to poke his head warily from around the wall.

"Hey, I was going to eat those flames!" Natsu complained, shutting up as Lucy shot daggered looks at him. She walked over to the window and sat on her bed, trying to breathe in as much fresh air as possible. Natsu joined her, trying not to sulk.

"Natsu, why were you cooking? We have a rule about cooking!" Lucy lectured, casting her memory to the time where Natsu had suggested cooking which Lucy had quickly overruled, cooking the fish perfectly and causing Happy to fly off crying that she was 'mean'.

"I know, I know – but you looked so cross when you stormed out of the bathroom so I thought I'd cook you dinner to cheer you up!" Natsu started to close the window until he noticed Lucy's face widened as she realised she was wearing a very damp and therefore see-through nightie.

Lucy shrieked, pushing Natsu head first into the covers of her bed. "Don't look at me!" she shrieked as she leapt up and surveyed her room for something she could cover herself in.

"Why not? You look nice!" Natsu's muffled voice sounded confused as Lucy blushed at the simple compliment in the context of the situation and raced into her other room where she found her pyjama top – she quickly changed into it, glad that it was one of the larger ones which acted almost as a very short dress.

"Natsu, don't move" Lucy shouted as she peeked around the corner. Natsu still had his head in the pillows so Lucy deemed it safe to race across the room. Unfortunately the fish that Lucy had cast out of the bucket earlier changed this as Lucy slipped on it and smashed into the wall, crying out as her head collided with full force against the wall.

"Lucy?!" Natsu's head shot up and turned bright red as he saw Lucy was kneeling away from him, clutching her head, with the t-shirt a bit higher than its already short length.

"DON'T LOOK YOU PERVERT!" Lucy screamed as she ran from the room and barred herself in the bathroom, quickly changing into her clothes and placing her hair in a towel. When she came out a few minutes later, she discovered that Natsu had moved the fish to the sink and was sitting cross-legged on her bed, his face still slightly pink; a slight resemblance to the colour of his hair.

Natsu shuffled anxiously for a moment before saying "Sorry about the fish…" dejectedly, avoiding looking at her. Lucy inwardly cursed at seeing Natsu look sheepish for the first time. She admitted that she had imagined Natsu seeing her in just a t-shirt before but this wasn't quite how she wanted it to work out.

She walked towards him and sat next to him, giving him a quick one armed hug before casually replying "Sorry for pouring water over your dinner…" The two of them looked at each other for a split second and then burst out laughing at the memory of the charcoaled fish, all previous awkward encounters forgotten.

"Hey Luce, is your head okay?" Natsu asked worryingly, moving closer to try and check her head.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me" Lucy said dismissively, cautiously feeling the side of her head before continuing "is Happy going to be upset that I stepped on his fish?"

Natsu thought for a while and suggested mischievously "I'm sure Happy won't be able to taste the difference…" before catching Lucy's eye and burst out laughing again, causing Lucy to laugh as well.

As Lucy laughed, she noticed that a bit of Natsu's hair was burnt slightly black and realised it must have caught fire before. She reached out with her hand and carefully examined it, explaining "Natsu, you've burnt some of you hair", before realising what she was doing and how close Natsu's face was.

Natsu didn't blink as he watched Lucy examine his hair, and barely heard her over the sound of a beating in his ears. When Lucy looked at him, the beating increased and Natsu found himself staring at her. He watched as her lips said the word "Natsu?" whilst she looked confused; her hand still absent-mindedly in his hair.

_THUD._

Natsu and Lucy jumped apart as Happy flew full speed into the half open window, almost knocking himself out in the process. "Happy!" Natsu exclaimed as he hurriedly opened the window and snatched Happy inside. "You okay?!" Natsu shook Happy slightly as Happy's eyes rolled around.

"Aye…" Happy said weakly as he struggled to walk in a straight line.

"I know what will make you feel better! Some iced fish!" Natsu bounded off towards the kitchen, leaving Lucy to keep a careful eye on Happy. Her thoughts were elsewhere though at the memory of her hand resting on a certain pink haired boy's head – she almost didn't notice Happy shake his head and glance in the bucket beside her bed.

"Where did my fish go?" Happy asked despairingly, his lower lip starting to tremble.

"Here they are Happy!" Natsu's voice emerged behind a stack of several fish as he carried them into the living room. Lucy laughed as Happy's eyes widened as he forgot his injury and joyfully leapt at the stack of fish. As Lucy headed into the kitchen after putting her foot down on Natsu's protests to cook again, Lucy found the fish she had slipped on still in the sink. As she heard an argument on how to cook fish start between Happy and Natsu, she smiled briefly and laughed to herself as she found herself wondering if she had hurt herself and was overdramatic like Happy, if Natsu would care enough about her to bring her fish.

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><p><strong>Reviews always appreciated - let me know how you want things to develop! :)<strong>


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